Not so long ago, a round, sun-ripened peach was symbolic of all things irresistible. Today, most of us have given up any hope of experiencing that explosion of juice-dripping flavour in our mouths. Most fruit is disappointing, 12 months of the year.
Modern retailers crave consistency and reliability, and live in fear of complaints or breaks in availability. They log complaints, and penalize growers every time a customer reports a soft plum. Unfortunately, few of us speak up about the mild disappointment of hard, bland fruit – but any softness, bruises, or blemishes will trigger an avalanche of complaints, however full the flavour. The result is that growers and retailers play it safe. Modern varieties have thick skins and firm flesh. They are picked weeks before full ripeness, and held in cold rooms while shipped around the world to ensure constant, seasonless availability. Be it a peach, plum, apricot, nectarine, or strawberry, these fruits have a remarkably consistent and reliable blandness – albeit with a long shelf-life and not a blemish in sight.
Over 25 years, we have worked with a group of organic stone fruit growers in Spain, France, and the UK. Their fruit is less consistent, and has a shorter season – but it is a little (and sometimes a lot) better than the norm. Fruit is never quite the same after seeing a cold room. We cannot get cherries and apricots from Enric in Lleida, Catalonia to you without refrigeration, but we encourage our growers to pick as ripe as they dare and as close to dispatch as possible (normally within 24 hours). We have chosen small- to medium-sized growers, who select varieties for flavour, and we do not crucify them when it goes wrong. Certainly we would never charge them if you complain or ask for a credit. Accepting a degree of risk, or the odd overripe specimen, is the only way to enjoy fruit at its best.
In Spain, stone fruit season starts in Murcia, but climate change (drought, extreme rain, and hail) has made the area risky, so the crop has moved inland, north and higher. Across summer, we enjoy nectarines from Emilio in Extremadura, and doughnut peaches from Jose Miguel in Zaragoza. The best apricots come from a group of growers in Provence, France, before we finish the season with Joe Pardoe’s Hereford plums and cherries, and move on to autumnal apples and pears from Paul Ward in West Sussex. Once summer fruits arrive at your doorstep, eat up as soon as possible.
Our News from the Farm posts come from Riverford. They are the digital versions of the printed letters which go out to customers, every week via Riverford’s veg boxes. Guy Singh-Watson’s weekly newsletters connect people to the farm with refreshingly honest accounts of the trials and tribulations of producing organic food, and the occasional rant about farming, ethical and business issues he feels strongly about.
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